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Phil Sands

Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow

Phil Sands is an Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow at New America. He is writing a book focused on a single murder committed in the opening months of the Syrian revolution, which exposes new details about the start of the revolt and the country’s descent into civil war. He has worked as a Middle East reporter for over a decade, and his writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Le Monde, The Independent and The National, as well as specialist regional publications. He was based in Damascus from 2007 through 2013 as The National’s Iraq and Syria correspondent. Phil is currently a correspondent for The National, specializing in in-depth stories on Syria’s southern front.